Buffalo Gold Collection

I think my second slot machine video will be on Buffalo Gold Collection. Vegas is full of these Buffalo games and I think "Gold Collection," if that is the right title, is the most popular among them. The Red Rock has them at every turn it seems like.

I've always wondered why the game is so popular, so I finally sat down and played it for about 15 today. Here is the gist of the game:

1. The game is a "ways to win" game, as opposed to paylines.
2. There are wilds on reels 2 to 4 only. In initial spins they sometimes have a multiplier of 2x or 3x.
3. Wins are based on a 40 credit bet. There is also, at the Red Rock at least, a mandatory 20 credit fee to enable the bonus feature.
4. The player triggers the bonus bet getting at least three scattered coins.
5. 3, 4 or 5 coins trigger 8, 15, or 20 free games, respectively.
6. In free games, wilds always get a multiplier of 2x or 3x.
7. In free games, there are special gold buffalo symbols.
8. If a reel stops on a gold buffalo it will change to a regular buffalo and remain that way the rest of the bonus.
9. A counter will keep track of how many gold buffaloes the player has collected.
10. If the player collects 4 gold buffaloes, then all eagle symbols on the reels turn into buffalos.
11. If the player collects 7 gold buffaloes, then all cougar symbols on the reels turn into buffalos.
12. If the player collects 13 gold buffaloes, then all wolf symbols on the reels turn into buffalos.
13. If the player collects 15 gold buffaloes, then all elk symbols on the reels turn into buffalos.
14. Free spins have coins and thus can earn more free spins. In addition, two coins earn five more free spins.

In this video, the player plays a bonus with 129 total free spins, almost $16,000 total win, and lasts 28 minutes. I did not fair so well. I played through about four bonuses but never won much in them.

Question -- The rule screens make it seem the player has the choice to:

A: Enable less than all five reels.
B: Not enable the bonus feature.

However, the machines at the Red Rock didn't you a choice. The least you could bet was 60 cents and you could multiply that by 2 to 6 if you wanted. The question is whether there are other machines that do give the player the choice on A and B above.

I would be interested in any thoughts of slot players about why they like the game and whether there is anything lacking in my game description.

The question for the poll is do you play Buffalo Gold?

Quote: Wizard

Question -- The rule screens make it seem the player has the choice to:

A: Enable less than all five reels.
B: Not enable the bonus feature.

However, the machines at the Red Rock didn't you a choice. The least you could bet was 60 cents and you could multiply that by 2 to 6 if you wanted. The question is whether there are other machines that do give the player the choice on A and B above.

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"Enable less than all five reels" is misleading.
On the other Aristocrat titles I have seen with this option, it means to partially disable reels, from right to left.
On a partially disabled reel, only one position is payable, instead of the full reel height.
Five of a kind patterns are still possible, but less likely.

Given the nature of the Buffalo Gold series, with stacked buffalo symbols and multiplier wilds being so valuable, I would not care to play without all reels fully enabled.

I think Red Rock probably made the right decision to not allow these options.

And... if I encounter these options in the wild, I'll try to let you know.

Buffalo is very popular at Mohegan Sun where many machines in several variations are available. It is often hard to find an open machine. One of Mrs. Chip’s favorite games. She also enjoys watching YouTube playing session videos. This is a more expensive game compared to her other favorite slots, but it has the highest entertainment value.

The placement I observed (way out of Vegas) was also configured for all reels fully active, bonus always enabled.

edit: This was a mechanical button deck (not touchscreen); the switches were in place for disabling the reels, but the inserts were absent and the functions disabled.

So how would one go about modelling the bonus feature?

Quote: rsactuary

So how would one go about modelling the bonus feature?
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I would do it by random simulation. I would take samplings from bonuses on the hit frequency of each symbol and make up my own reel strips from that.

Sorry, poorly asked question. How would the developers, with all knowledge of all necessary probabilities, go about modeling the return of the bonus game?

I'd still tend to agree with Wizard and would think they would just simulate it a few hundred million times.

You could do it in such a fashion where you determine how many expected Free Games (and Gold symbols) are added on a per spin basis and I once used that to figure out the expected return for an unusual Keno game (I can find and link the LCB article if you want), but that would take forever and likely be inexact.

The reason why you would eventually stop (as I did with the Keno game) is because you end up adding very small fractions of a Free Game, one step at a time, to your analysis. The maximum number of Free Games for this Keno game was capped, but it would have taken probably a few thousand or million steps before ever reaching the cap.

Basically, what I did was figured out the expectation ($$$) per spin and then I figured out the Expected Free Games added per draw. I took that and multiplied by the initial number of Free Games in a particular set of Free Games to get the expected number of Free Games added per initial set.

After that, I took the Expected Number of Free Games added per initial set of Free Games and multiplied by how many Expected Free Games would be added based on the Expected Number of Free Games already added.

And, then I repeated the step in the previous paragraph several more times until I got to a stupidly low expected amount added and decided that was good enough.

Apparently, the RTP is actually published right in the rules of the machine in question and my analysis agreed with both that and a different analysis.

Quote: Mission146

I'd still tend to agree with Wizard and would think they would just simulate it a few hundred million times.

You could do it in such a fashion where you determine how many expected Free Games (and Gold symbols) are added on a per spin basis and I once used that to figure out the expected return for an unusual Keno game (I can find and link the LCB article if you want), but that would take forever and likely be inexact.

The reason why you would eventually stop (as I did with the Keno game) is because you end up adding very small fractions of a Free Game, one step at a time, to your analysis. The maximum number of Free Games for this Keno game was capped, but it would have taken probably a few thousand or million steps before ever reaching the cap.

Basically, what I did was figured out the expectation ($$$) per spin and then I figured out the Expected Free Games added per draw. I took that and multiplied by the initial number of Free Games in a particular set of Free Games to get the expected number of Free Games added per initial set.

After that, I took the Expected Number of Free Games added per initial set of Free Games and multiplied by how many Expected Free Games would be added based on the Expected Number of Free Games already added.

And, then I repeated the step in the previous paragraph several more times until I got to a stupidly low expected amount added and decided that was good enough.

Apparently, the RTP is actually published right in the rules of the machine in question and my analysis agreed with both that and a different analysis.
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Interesting, thank you. I have no knowledge of this, I just assumed the gaming commission would have insisted on some sort of closed form definitive solution and not a simulation. Not sure why I thought that.

Quote: rsactuary

Interesting, thank you. I have no knowledge of this, I just assumed the gaming commission would have insisted on some sort of closed form definitive solution and not a simulation. Not sure why I thought that.
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In Nevada, a math report by GLI or BMM must be submitted for approval. GLI does most of their games by simulation.

In other news, here is my Buffalo Gold Collection video.


Direct: https://youtu.be/3g5YCZ9EQaw

I welcome all comments.